The Folly of Captain Dread

     Captain Dread floated across the deck, muttering to himself about blasted faeries and island weaknesses. Jasper looked up from where he was discussing supplies with the bosun and briefly debated with himself over whether it would be worth bringing up next steps. The captain had not been immune to the foul moods of late, and often sequestered himself in his quarters with his grand plans while Jasper was left to handle the day-to-day needs of the ship and what small raids they could manage while they recovered. Still, now seemed like an opportune time to start turning things back around.

     “Should be ready for a proper raid, Captain,” he called out, falling into step beside him.

     Dread grumbled and scratched his chin. “Aye, ‘tis time. The ship be itchin’ fer some excitement, and by now the world’ll think we’ve gone soft.”

     The two of them happened to pass by a crewmember who was busy swabbing the deck as they spoke, and she let out a low snort and muttered something under her breath. A moment later, Jasper realised that he was suddenly walking alone. With a small frown, he turned to see his captain shooting a withering gaze at the other pirate.

     “Care to repeat that, Miss Hadyn?” he asked.

     The pirate, a bulky yellow Moehog who acted as the ship’s cook, set aside her mop and folded her arms with a pointed look. “I think yeh heard me fine, Captain. I said we’d be harder if yeh hadn’t talked yer yap off in front of an entire island!”

     Dread drew his cutlass and levelled it at her. “Ye daughter of a Snorkle, ye dare challenge the stratagems of Captain Dread?!”

     Jasper frowned and looked about. Other pirates were starting to take notice of the confrontation. This was not the best time to be making a scene, so he stepped forward. “Captain –”

     “Me? Oh, naw,” Haydn snapped back, undeterred. “I’d say it’s the last half year o’ scapin’ by on salvage and fishin’ boats that be questionin’ yer strategems!”

     Dread’s countenance darkened at that – as much as it could beneath his skeletal illusion, at least. “Why, you insolent little –”

     “Sail ho!” The shout from above tore across the deck like a cannon shot, and everyone on board went still. “Off the port side!”

     Jasper strode purposefully to the portside railing and pulled out his spyglass, Captain Dread hovering up alongside him. Raising the glass, he took several moments to study the other ship that had blundered into the Revenge’s path.

     “It’s a Lost Desert ship, trade vessel most likely,” he finally determined. “A good size too. Well-armed, but we have the supplies now to take her down.”

     Haydn, placated for the time being, hummed in thought. “Lost Desert, eh? Might have some interestin’ magical trinkets aboard. Could be quite a haul.”

     Captain Dread hummed thoughtfully as well. He held out a hand, and Jasper dutifully passed the spyglass over.

     After a minute or two of scrutinising the ship and muttering to himself, Dread lowered the instrument and said, “She’ll have nothing we need but the pieces ta start putting our reputation back together. Bring the Revenge in range so’s Jasper can reach our new friend with his magic, and sink her.”

     The outcry from the crew was immediate and stark. “But Captain, we need that treasure!” one of the pirates called out over the din. “How are we supposed to collect if our prey’s at the bottom of the sea?”

     Dread held up his hands in a silencing gesture and waited a moment for the shouting to die down. “Gentlepets, we’ve much bigger prizes in store than a simple trade ship. Take a gander ‘round – now’s we’ve had the time for it, we’re back to being strong as we were when we took down Maraqua. What be some simple merchant ship in the face o’ that, hmm?”

     “A source of wealth, maybe?” Haydn grumbled.

     Dread levelled a glare at her. “Better as a source of infamy,” he said pointedly. “We take that ship on with swords and cannons, we use them all up before we can strike at a real prize. A good whirlpool might cost us the gold now, but it’ll remind Neopia just who we are and leave us the time to sack an island ripe for the pickin’.”

     “This best not turn out like Mystery Island,'' another pirate muttered, almost too low for the others to hear.

     Despite the ongoing debate, a navigator had by now steered the Revenge close enough to the other ship that Jasper could see it clearly without his spyglass. Sailors had begun to dart back and forth on the deck, no doubt preparing for battle. Jasper bit back a low sigh – he would have to act soon if he wanted to avoid their cannonfire. He raised one paw and began to call on his water magic, swirling the hand in the air almost lazily as he did.

     “This’ll be no Mystery Island, mark me words,” Captain Dread went on behind him. “I’ve been making plans for our next target, see. Roo Island’s got no guardian faerie, and its foolish play-king’s too focused on his little games ta put up much of a fight. That kingdom’s riches be as good as ours.”

     The muttering mostly died down after that, the crew persuaded for the time being. Pirates dispersed back to their work or joined Jasper at the portside rail to watch him work his literal magic, though Hadyn snorted and shook her head as she snatched up her mop. The once-calm waters around the Lost Desert ship had started churning and twisting in response to his spell, and he imagined he could just hear the panicked shouts of her crew carried out over the wind.

     Beside him now, Dread let out a dark chuckle. “Nobody makes a fool of Captain Dread,” he said.

     The fur on the back of Jasper’s neck prickled at the self-serving arrogance in those words, but he remained silent and kept his focus on the spell.

     Still, as the trade ship began to rock and spin hopelessly in the building whirlpool, a part of him had the sinking feeling that he could relate.

     * * * * * * *

     If there was one good thing Jasper could say about the Roo Island raid, it was that Dread had been right about it not turning out like Mystery Island.

     Jasper slammed thick wooden doors open and closed as he stormed half-wantonly below deck – anywhere to get away from the rest of the crew and its blasted captain. That things hadn’t gone as badly as the last time was about all he could say, he thought bitterly. Roo Island may not have had a faerie, but it did have a proper navy – one good enough to keep the safe, peaceful reputation of the kingdom more or less intact in the face of pirates and other brigands, as it turned out. And they’d been so… so playful about it all! Not to the point of failing to take the matter seriously, but there had been taunts and seemingly nonsensical manoeuvres that worked out just so and those blasted springs. The Roo Islanders hadn’t just pushed back Dread’s crew, they’d confused and utterly humiliated it, and the Revenge had barely gotten out by the skin of its teeth.

     Oh, but they’d still gotten treasure out with them, Dread would surely argue. Jasper paused a moment at one last doorway, clenched fists resting against the sturdy wood as his breaths heaved in hot fury. As first mate, he had the honour of dividing up the spoils. Some spoils – barely enough to cover the costs of the supplies they’d need for repairs, with little more than petty trinkets left over for Dread, himself, and the crew.

     Well… petty trinkets and one other thing.

     Jasper forced his breathing to slow until he’d achieved some semblance of composure, and then he opened the door into the brig. He wasn’t entirely sure why he’d half decided to come here. Probably to see for himself whether the few prisoners they’d taken were worth something, anything, that might salvage this absolute joke of a raid.

     His first look at the prisoners wasn’t promising. There weren’t many of them: a couple of garishly-dressed pets who’d clearly been island tourists, a kid huddled in a back corner, and a simply-dressed young woman who looked far too at ease for someone who’d just been captured by infamous pirates. None of them looked wealthy enough to be worth much in ransom, or like enough of… anything else that Dread might think he could use them for.

     Jasper frowned at the last one. Was that a hint of a smirk on her face? Surely his crew’s reputation hadn’t suffered so badly that their own captives saw them as little more than an inconvenience.

     “You find something funny?” he grumbled to her, standing a little straighter in an admittedly weak attempt to seem more intimidating.

     The woman, a pink Kacheek, looked up at him from where she was fiddling with a long splinter of wood. Where had she even gotten that?

     “That depends,” she said. “Does your boss always rely on magic that isn’t his to get the job done? Because that would be kind of hilarious.”

     Jasper growled low in his throat. “Watch who you’re talking to. That’s my spellcraft you’re making light of, and it kept your kingdom’s navy occupied long enough to get you behind those bars.”

     That at least got a proper reaction out of the other prisoners. The tourists whimpered and then shied away from him when he glanced their way, and the kid looked up at him with wide, frightened eyes.

     For her part, the Kacheek just shrugged. “Never said it didn’t. I reckon a good mage must be pretty useful to have around… assuming the guy in charge isn’t just carelessly throwing his magic at everything and then taking credit when it happens to work.”

     She returned her attention to her wooden sliver, leaving Jasper to fume. He knew this prisoner was playing him somehow, that she had some goal of her own in mind if she was bothering to tell him all this. But he could not deny the truth of her words, nor the way they echoed his own frustrations that had been steadily building for a long time now.

     “You seem awfully sure of yourself,” he finally grumbled.

     The Kacheek smirked again. “I know the type. Greedy, arrogant, won’t go for anything less than the biggest prize ‘cause they’ve convinced themselves they deserve nothing less. They all fall eventually, and it looks like yours is poised to take the crew down with him.”

     She looked back up at him then, with a piercing stare that seemed to bore through him and a predatory grin that would have looked more fitting on a Jetsam. “So, yes, pirate. I have to say I find this all very funny.”

     Jasper let out a warning snarl, but already he knew there was little he could say to rebuke her. None of the others dared break the silence that had formed between him and the Kacheek, and she just kept staring with an expression that had fallen back to that contemptible little smirk.

     Finally, he pushed away from the cell bars. “We’ll see about that,” he grumbled, half to himself. “Useless prisoners, I don’t know what Dread thinks he can get from the lot of you.”

     With that, he stalked out of the brig and started back for where the bosun had sequestered himself. He’d heard the mutterings of the crew growing worse since the raid, of course. Perhaps it was time he had a talk with them.

     * * * * * * *

     Things were not going well for Captain Dread. His blasted cowards of a crew had pulled back too quickly from Roo Island, and then they had the gall to complain about their meagre haul. It seemed like complaining was all they did lately, and now they’d been so distracted with it that they hadn’t kept a close eye on the prisoners.

     Here they’d been docked for supplies for less than a day, and already the prisoners had escaped with nothing but a sliver of wood for a lockpick. And not only had he lost his tickets to ransom gold and further infamy, but they’d gone and taken most of the Roo Island haul with them!

     Captain Dread was no Lupe, but still he growled as he drifted through the halls toward his quarters. He swore to the depths, he was going to keelhaul whoever had seen fit to kidnap a member of the Thieves Guild and take her aboard his ship.

     The heavy sound of boots on wooden steps drew his attention away from unlocking his quarters, and he turned to see Jasper descending the stairway. He nodded.

     “Good you’re here, lad,” he said. “There’s a lot of work that needs doin’, and we best be making plans.”

     The big Lupe eyed him silently for a few long moments. Finally, he said, “Aye, Leland. There’s a lot to be done.”

     Dread had returned his attention to his quarters, but he froze at that for a moment before glancing back to his first mate.

     “What makes yeh think ye should be using that name?” he asked, a hint of warning in his tone.

     Jasper didn’t respond, but he straightened up to his full height and his one good eye hardened. Behind him, more footsteps sounded as other pirates began making their way down to the hold.

     “I don’t see how you can stop me,” Jasper finally said, taking a few steps forward as more and more pirates started to fill in behind him. “Tell me, Leland, what are your plans? More whirlpools? More attacks on settlements that won’t work like Maraqua did? Would you like to set the spells off yourself and see how it goes?”

     Dread’s eyes roved over the growing crowd, at the snarling and jeering and grinning pirates whose hateful gazes were focused on him. His jaw set itself into a scowl, and he pulled his cutlass from its scabbard and drifted back a foot or so.

     “I see now,” he spat. “A mutiny, is it? Well, the lot of you best know by now that nobody but nobody betrays Captain Dre–”

     Jasper waved a paw almost dismissively, and the prickling sensation of an illusion being dispelled interrupted Leland’s threat as half-transparent flesh reasserted itself in the corner of his vision. The jeering of the crew got louder and more frenzied, peppered with shouts of, “You show ‘im, Scarblade!” and “Captain Scarblade’s always been coverin’ fer this phoney!”

     Leland’s eyes narrowed at his treacherous first mate. “Scarblade?”

     The Lupe in question continued his advancement and drew his namesake sword. “Just putting on a show, like you once told me. Only difference is, I have the power to back it up.”

     Leland’s knuckles throbbed with the pressure of the grip he had on his own sword, and he drifted back further only to bump into the wall at the end of the hallway. As he watched the other pirates slinging insults and closing in, he realised with a sinking sense of dread that Scarblade was right: he had no power, and no escape.

     “The Revenge has a new captain now,” Captain Scarblade called out over the din, as he raised his cutlass high.

     The End.